Designing the Identities of Engineers

In 2007 Gary Downey, Juan Lucena and Carl Mitcham argued that a “key issue in ethics education for engineers concerns the relationship between the identity of the engineer and the responsibilities of engineering work”. They suggested that “one methodological strategy for sorting out similarities and differences in engineers’ identities is to ask the ‘who’ question. Who is an engineer? Or, what makes one an engineer?” (Downey et al. 2007). This chapter explores these questions of who is an engineer and what makes one an engineer by examining how engineering and engineering technology students in Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) describe and differentiate themselves. DIT offers both 4-year engineering degrees (that are equivalent to the educational standard required for professional status) and 3-year degrees in engineering technology. Annually DIT graduates the largest combined number of engineering and engineering technology majors in the country. We present results that show that there is no distinct sense of identity for a technologist. For faculty as well as engineering students and engineering technology students, design is perceived as a key differentiating activity that separates the engineer from the engineering technologist. Paradoxically, while all students chose DIT based on its reputation and practical focus, it is engineering technology students who indicated they are prepared for the ‘real world’ as they near graduation. Results also show, in terms of their own responses, that engineering and engineering technology students have fairly consistent views of their education and preparation for the workforce.